Corcadorca to close: Cork company that launched Cillian Murphy to bow out
Corcadorca: from left, Enda Walsh and Pat Kiernan; Eileen Walsh and Cillian Murphy; a scene from The Trial of Jesus.
It was the theatre company that launched the stellar careers of the likes of Cillian Murphy and Enda Walsh, but after 31 years, Corcadorca are bringing the curtain down on their final act.
In recent years based at Triskel in Cork, a statement from Corcadorca on Tuesday revealed they had decided not to apply for Arts Council funding and would wind down the highly-regarded company.
The closure will be regarded as a loss to the Irish arts world, particularly for Cork where Corcadorca have been the largest and most prolific producers of quality theatre for many years.
After establishing their reputation with Disco Pigs in 1996, Corcadorca had become renowned for site-specific productions, with plays performed in factories, harbour islands, and even Cork city’s courthouse. As well as film star Murphy, and renowned playwright Walsh, the company also provided an outlet for major talents such as Ruth Negga, Eileen Walsh, and many other actors and technical staff who worked on their productions through the decades.
In 2022, Corcadorca have already produced a warmly-received adaptation of Frank O’Connor’s Guests Of The Nation, performed Enda Walsh’s The Same in New York, and also toured a show to several venues around Ireland. The company’s Theatre Development Centre at Triskel has also been instrumental in fostering local talent in Cork.
Announcing the closure, founder and artistic director Pat Kiernan said: “Collaborating with both emerging and established talent, we made outstanding work with Corcadorca and the Theatre Development Centre. I’m particularly proud that we were part of the cultural fabric of the city.”
It is understood that Kiernan will continue working in the world of theatre. Corcadorca’s other stalwart of recent decades, company manager Fin Flynn, had moved to Cork Arts Theatre in 2020.
A source close to the company indicated that there wasn’t any one reason for the decision to shut down, but the annual grind of trying to source funding, and pulling together all the logistical and administrative strands to put on their productions, had taken their toll.
There has been an increase in budget allocations to the arts in recent years, but the Covid era has seen many people leave the sector in search of more secure employment than the gig economy could offer.
Among those paying tribute to Corcadorca was writer Kevin Barry, who had seen their early productions while living in Cork in the 1990s, and had gone on to collaborate with the company on an adaptation of Guests Of The Nation for Cork Midsummer Festival 2022.
"I think the message being transmitted by the company in the early and mid ‘90s was that you didn't need to be in London or New York to produce world-class work, and you certainly didn't need to be in Dublin,” said Barry.
“You could do it from a small wet southern city and it was actually the very local textures and voices that could lift and distinguish the work. I think this was important for lots of people with creative ambitions in the city, and not just in theatre."
Mary McCarthy, director of the Crawford Art Gallery, also heaped praise on the company. McCarthy had headed Cork’s tenure as European City of Culture in 2005, of which Corcadorca were a key part.
‘Corcadorca defined site specific theatre for a generation of us. Their productions were something that were highly anticipated. They defined how we saw and will continue to see Cork, as place , both its urban and natural spaces,” said McCarthy.
“The landscape of theatre and theatre making is an ever shifting proposition, and I look forward to seeing what Pat Kiernan as artistic director does next. I have my own Corcadorca map of Cork, thanks to this amazing company. That map continues to inspire me.”
An explosive, electrifying cult hit in Triskel, Cork, that went off to conquer Edinburgh, Melbourne and a host of other international festivals, as well as launching the careers of Enda Walsh, Eileen Walsh and Cillian Murphy. Not bad for a portable two-hander on two chairs — the very antithesis of the large-scale shows more typically associated with Corcadorca. But, it did have energy, attitude and integrity of a kind that became a Corcadorca stamp in the years that followed.
Written by Conal Creedon, the marking of 2000 years since the birth of the “most influential person in Western culture” featured a staging of the trial, crucifixion and ascension on St Patrick' s Hill in Cork.
The dexterous use of so many spaces provided endless moments of surprise for audiences led from scene to scene through Fitzgerald’s Park as summer dusk descended. It was also a shape of things to come, with Pat Kiernan’s direction maintaining a narrative clarity in balance with the many charms and clever twists in the setting.
The breadth and sweep of this production were incredible, as scenes shifted from the old cooperage at Irish Distillers on the North Mall in Cork to the city's courthouse. A triumphant vindication for Corcadorca and possibly the highlight of Cork’s year as European Capital City of Culture.
Setting off from the quays of Cobh for Haulbowline Island was an unforgettable way to start a night of theatre, if that word could be applied to such an all-encompassing experience. David Pearse lived up to the enviable ask of making his Woyzeck large enough for this larger-than-life production full of sound and fury, carried along by Mel Mercier’s score and a sequence of stunning set pieces.
A play that reunited three-quarters of the old Disco Pigs gang, written by Enda Walsh, directed by Pat Kiernan, and starring sibling duo Eileen and Catherine Walsh. A work that felt baffling but brilliant, Corcadorca again struck gold with the setting – the audience wandered around the recently-decommissioned Cork prison before the performance.
